Fiona Apple follows up her dark 1999 masterpiece When the Pawn... with something a bit more humorous

>>“Personally, I think humiliation is worse than death,” Fiona Apple says, taking a break from mixing her first record in more than three years. “Not that death is OK; it’s just that humiliation is something you have to live with.”

Rock’s reigning philosopher-chanteuse hasn’t lost her dark edge during her hiatus from the spotlight. But according to those who know her best, she has lightened up a bit. “These songs definitely show more of her sense of humor,” says producer Jon Brion, who worked with Apple on her last release, 1999’s critically lauded, commercially overlooked album When the Pawn....

One song, “Better Version of me,” began as a litany of personal put-downs. “By the last verse, I realized that all the qualities that make you feel unequipped in life can be turned around to your own advantage,” she says. “It actually became sort of optimistic.”

Apple chalks that up less to a newly rosy outlook than to just growing up. “I’m still the same,” says the 26 year old. “I still have horrible days, but I started to look at them with more appreciation as an observer. Rather than ‘I feel horrible and I want to die,’ now its more like, ‘Isn’t that interesting how I want to die right now? I wonder how I’ll feel five minutes from now?’ ”

The new songs are filled with woodwinds and strings, but they’re never limp. As for the album’s title, Apple is keeping mum.

“If you knew what the title was,” smiling mysteriously, “you would know why I can’t tell you.”

10-22-2002 Hello--I am at home getting my life in order so I can go on the road for a couple of months with the wee red head (a.k.a Tori).My recording with Fiona Apple in L.A. was tragically cut short. I guess she was trying to break up a fight involving her dog and got bit on the arm pretty bad.So she got stitched up and is going to be fine-- after a few weeks of healing and some physical therapy she will be tinkling the ivories like the supagirl that she is. I guess we will continue the recording after the 1st leg of the Tori tour.----I am really excited to be out playing music in front of people,the last year I have been in recording studios playing with some really great people--but it is not the same as playing live...Bye for now----Matt C

Quote from: neatahwanta

Over at http://www.fionahaswings.com , Lane just added three new mp3's of Fiona singing cover tunes with Jon and Grant Lee Phillips at Largo.

The latest covers songs are "I'll Be Home For Christmas", "River Stay Away From My Door" (written by Mort Dixon & Harry M. Woods, had to look that one up), and "Just a Man In Love" (Buddy Holly cover). Jazzy-popular music from the way-back machine.

Download 'em and enjoy.

an often requested and useful bit of gossip for the uninformed, concerning her love life:

Quote from: neatahwanta

Still not sure what's going on, but....

Exhibit A: photo from http://www.lioneldeluy.com (Lionel Deluy being some kind of professional photographer.) found in the music section:

Exhibit B: photograph of Lionel Deluy from the biography section of his own website:

"Doors open at 8 PM for all weekday shows and at 8:30 PM on Friday and Saturday."

"Cover at the door ranges from $5.00 to $15.00, depending on the show. Cash only at the door. There is a $15.00 credit card minimum for food and drink."

According to the schedule, Jon Brion is performing the 11th, 18th, 25th of July.

Quote from: neatahwanta

Fiona Apple Ripe for Return New album coming this winter

Fiona Apple has some good news: "We're about two weeks from being done," she says of her long-awaited third record, the follow-up to 1999's When the Pawn . . .. She's working in an Los Angeles studio again with producer Jon Brion (Aimee Mann) on the album, which is now likely to come out in February.

The still-untitled LP is tentatively set to include ten tracks. "When I've written ten songs, I'm done," Apple says. Among the songs guaranteed to make the final cut are "Extraordinary," a Tin Pan Alley-esque blend of Tom Waits and Vaudeville, and "Better," an OutKast-like deluge of beats.

This record is the third collaboration for the twenty-six-year-old Apple and Brion, and this time the two have really hit a groove. "Over time," she says, "working with Jon and [drummer] Matt Chamberlain, I know what they're going to have fun doing when I'm writing."

During the time between When the Pawn . . . and the upcoming set, Apple and Brion met for lunch weekly, but "not to discuss work." Then about a year ago, Apple says, "I started to get the itch" after a two-year break during which she did things like hang out with family, friends and her dogs, read, take walks, ride her bike, and work on her art.

Apple didn't listen to much music during the break, but given the disparate sounds of "Extraordinary" and "Better," she did successfully open her work up to new ideas and influences. "I guess it's all over the place," she says. "But I'm too close to the songs . . . You'll just have to decide for yourself."

It's been four years and one big meltdown since Fiona Apple released her brilliant When the Pawn..., which was nearly eclipsed by negative PR after she threw an epic tantrum on stage at New York's Roseland bllroom. Now, the angsty Apple is prepping her third CD, Extraordinary Machine. It's her first work since her breakup with director P.T. Anderson, her longtime beau, so Apple has plenty of heartache to work with. "I tend to write about being hurt, but ther's always anger in it." she says "I cant let myself just be absolutely sad."

short Q & A in new Entertainment Weekly. slated for 'early summer' release. (i'll believe it when i see it).

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Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

It's been four years and one big meltdown since Fiona Apple released her brilliant When the Pawn..., which was nearly eclipsed by negative PR after she threw an epic tantrum on stage at New York's Roseland bllroom.

I think Tidal was her best as opposed to When the Pawn Creams Her Pants......

It's been four years and one big meltdown since Fiona Apple released her brilliant When the Pawn..., which was nearly eclipsed by negative PR after she threw an epic tantrum on stage at New York's Roseland bllroom.

I think Tidal was her best as opposed to When the Pawn Creams Her Pants......

"We're all one thing, Lieutenant. That's what I've come to realize. Like cells in a body. 'Cept we can't see the body. The way fish can't see the ocean. And so we envy each other. Hurt each other. Hate each other. How silly is that? A heart cell hating a lung cell"

The last time Fiona Apple released an album, upstart violent femme Avril Lavigne was still singing church hymns in her Sunday best. Except for a duet with the late Johnny Cash and her charming cover of "Frosty the Snowman", we havent heard a peep out of the once unsilenceable bad, bad girl since 1999's When The Pawn... "I guess I decided to take a break", Apple tells us with uncharacteristic breeziness. "Do you ever feel like you've said everything? You think, 'I'm never going to be able to write anything because theres nothing left.'" Well, sure, but we have a monthly deadline. "You have to let life happen before you can do something else," she observes. "I guess I made the decidsion to do that." Life as it's wont to do, happened to Apple, despite her best effots (she lives in LA but doesnt drive, rarely works the nightlife circuit, owns a TV that she claims gets no channels, and doesnt listen to the radio), and she's begun work on her third album-tentatively titled "Extraordinary Machine" and due later this year-with producer Jon Brion. Semiretirement has turned Apple into something of a bookworm. While her first two albums wer preoccupied with heartbreak and rage, tweedy subjects such as etymology and chromotology now inform many of her tracks. "Threres a song called 'Beter Version of Me' that is jampacked with stuff from word-and-phrase origin books", she says. "Another called 'Red, Red, Red' is inspired by a book about optical illusions." If you're worried about all this maturity becoming dreary, Apple promisess us that another newie titled "Oh Well" is a "pretty standard you hurt me ballad". Hell hath no fury like a bibliophile scorned.

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Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.